Family
by platedlizard
Summary: It wasn’t until later, after everything was done, did Sasuke even think to discover just what his brother had been doing with his life." Sasuke/Naruto, gen-focus
1. Family

A/N, this was originally meant to be a oneshot, but I guess I got inspired. Rated M due to a graphic fishing accident in the second chapter. Commercial fishing boats are dangerous, dangerous things.

* * *

It wasn't until later, after everything was done, did Sasuke even think to discover just what his brother had been doing with his life.

Akatsuki couldn't have taken up all of the man's life, after all.

In fact, he wasn't certain just why it was so important for him to discover just what his brother had done with his life, but it was important for him, if nothing else. There was a gap in his knowledge about his brother, a missing piece between loving brother and a member of the ANBU so dutiful that he would slaughter his whole family. When he explained his feelings to Ibiki during one of his many interrogations the man had nodded. Tying up lose ends, he'd called it, and had recommended to the Hokage that Sasuke be allowed to take a leave of absence, to which she agreed, providing he had proper supervision.

And so here he was, after months of searching with a certain annoying moron whom he had somehow managed to fall in love with.

"Hey bastard, are you going in or not?" said moron said as he paused at the edge of the little village. Sasuke threw him a _look_, and was once again amazed by the color of Naruto's eyes. Such a clear azure blue… not that he would let that get in the way of glaring at him. Naruto, unfazed by his glare, laughed at him.

Goaded, he shook his head and walked on. During his brief stay as a member of the Akatsuki they'd given him his brother's belongings. There hadn't been much, really, some clothing, weapons, and a few books, including a small note book that had apparently contained Itachi's personal diary. There wasn't much in it, and what was there was mostly in some sort of personal code that was half short hand and half something else that still had the code breakers at Konoha confused. Not all the entries were coded, however, and he was here as a result of the ones that were weren't.

A certain house just outside of Sandhill in Wave Country had been mentioned several times, and a woman. Perhaps she knew more.

And far too soon he found himself outside the house and his heart froze inside his chest, because playing in the yard were two children, a boy and a girl, who were the spitting image of his brother. He felt himself tremble, and all of the sudden Naruto's hand were pressed against his ribs, his body a warm presence against his back.

A moment later he stepped away as the children noticed him. The girl hung back, perhaps shy, while the boy approached the fence. He was apparently about ten, and he looked so much like Itachi that Sasuke was torn between wanting to rip the boy's face off and embracing him. He was frozen, rooted in place and unable to breathe. Fortunately Naruto was with him.

"Hey kid," he said, releasing him, "your mom here?"

The boy nodded, and then yelled for his sister to fetch the woman before turning back to watch the two strangers warily. Sasuke could see something that wasn't quite yet the Sharingan begin to unfold in the boy's eyes. It wasn't developed at all, but one day…

A moment later a woman appeared, the shy little girl half-hiding behind her. The woman paused for a moment on the other side of the small gate, and paled.

"Well," she said after a moment, her dark eyes searching his face. "I suppose I should have expected this."

Naruto shattered the awkward silence that followed, pushing forward and loudly introducing himself, Konoha's Number One Hyperactive Loudmouth once again proving his title. The woman looked startled for a moment, before breaking out into an uncertain smile while her daughter hid further behind her legs and the boy scowled.

"I'm Sasuke," he said when the loudmouth was done. No need to say his surname.

"I know." She studied his face a moment more, and he found himself studying her in turn. She was a petite and pretty brunette, but he couldn't see what it was about her that had drawn his brother back, again and again. She was an ordinary woman living in a small fishing village, not a shinobi. Not anyone important.

Perhaps that was the point.

"Come in," she said, opening the gate. "I'm Hana," she said, leaving off her surname. "This is Fugaku and Mikoto." She was turned away from him so she didn't see his flinch. Naruto's hand clasped his shoulder. "Children," she said a moment later as she showed them into her cottage. "I have to talk to Sasuke-san and Naruto-san privately for a while, so why don't you go visit Azuma-san? I'm sure he'll let you help out with that new boat."

"Mother…" the boy said, a note of worry in his voice.

"I'll be fine. They're not here to do anything bad."

The boy snorted, then turned and gave Sasuke the coldest glare he had ever received from a ten year old before silently taking his sister's hand and darting out of the house. Naruto barked out a laugh and slapped Sasuke on the back. "Your nephew for sure!"

"Hn."

Hana gestured for them to take a seat at the large table that took up most of the kitchen. "I'm making tea," she said, voice and body tense. In the corner on the far side of the room there was cradle containing a sleeping infant, but Sasuke found himself reluctant to meet this third child.

"You're shaking," Naruto breathed into his ear. "I don't think I've ever seen you so scared."

"You moron. I'm not scared." What was there to be frightened of? They wouldn't bite. Sasuke forced himself to take a deep breath and looked into Naruto's eyes, which were the exact shade of summer. As always he felt something ease within him, for all the annoyance the man gave him, Sasuke always felt calmer in his presence.

"I'm scared," the woman said calmly as she set steaming mugs down in front of them. "I'm terrified. The last time _he_ was here he told me what he did to his family. What he did to you." Her eyes were as hard as her voice.

"I'm not here for retribution."

Her eyes narrowed, and then abruptly flicked away to the crib as she sipped her tea. "I named him Itachi." Sasuke flinched again. Perhaps he wasn't here for retribution, but she seemed to determined to wreck it in her own fashion. Naruto slid his chair over and slung an arm around his shoulders, holding him as close as Sasuke ever let him in public. The intense heat of his body was reassuring.

"Why?" he asked, finally.

"Why what? Why did I name the baby that, or why did his father marry me?"

"Why did he marry you?"

She shrugged, still looking at the baby. "At the time I thought he loved me. Maybe he did, but he wasn't terribly expressive." Sasuke elbowed Naruto in the ribs before he could do more than draw breath. Now was not the time for the moron to make a smart remark. "But the last time he was here he told me it was to rebuild his clan."

"Insurance," he said. "He wasn't sure I would survive. Or…would want to have children if I did."

Naruto, mercifully, stayed silent at that. Sasuke suspected that the blond was going to explode later. The woman looked at them and raised an eyebrow when she saw how closely Naruto was holding him.

"Hmmm," she said, and looked away again.

"I killed him," he said softly after a moment.

"No you didn't. He committed suicide." Her voice was incredibly bitter. "He married me, had three children, and then had his little brother execute him just so that he could atone for the crime of slaughtering his family." She set her mug down hard enough to crack it. "If he weren't dead I'd kill him myself."

With unnecessary violence she swept the cracked mug up and threw it in the trash before getting a new one and filling it with something that was definitely not tea. She took a gulp before continuing.

"He abandoned them, and he abandoned me, and what was worse, he knew he'd be abandoning us from the start, and he still did it. Now our children will be growing up without a father."

"Che," Naruto said, leaning forward and blocking her mug before she gulped down the rest. "It's not so bad, they have an uncle."

She froze and for the first time Sasuke could see the fear in her. She was, he realized, the sort of person who lashed out when frightened, who fought back, determined to make whoever it was who'd frightened her regret it. Had she been a shinobi she would have been the sort to take chunks out of her enemy just because she could. Vicious. He could see why his brother had married her, who better to protect his children?

"You're not taking my children from me," she whispered.

He snorted. "Of course not, you're their mother."

The look she gave them told him that she wasn't reassured. "The Uchihas are a shinobi clan," she said. "You're going to take them, and you're going to make them into killers."

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that.

Fortunately Naruto was never without anything to say. "Fugaku-kun is developing the Sharingan," he said, "How does the village feel about that? Will they accept him, or will he be ostracized the moment they realize he's different? And what will you do when other shinobi come? They'll see his Sharingan and they'll want it, and if you're lucky they'll be from one of the other hidden villages. If you're not, they'll be missing-nin."

"They don't even need him," Sasuke said, quietly. "Just his eyes, and a medical-ninja crooked enough to transplant them." Hana flinched at that, as if he had struck her. "They need to learn how to protect themselves." He felt no guilt using her fear to manipulate her. "Your children deserve to know about their heritage."

Under the table Naruto kicked him. Hard. Sasuke got the unspoken message, apparently Naruto thought he was being mean.

She took a sip. "I was suppose to find you or a man named Hatake Kakashi-san in a few years."

Sasuke blinked at that, and a few things fell into place, most notably Itachi's refusal to fight Kakashi. So, the man had been part of a backup plan to teach Itachi's children the proper use of the Sharingan, even if he wasn't of the clan. For some reason that made Sasuke relax.

"Kakashi-sensei? Wha--?"

"The Sharingan, moron."

There was a blur of movement, and Sasuke had just enough time to register that the attack wasn't _serious_--that is, potentially injurious--before the woman's hand connected with his cheek. For a non-shinobi she was _fast_. "Watch your language," she said as if scolding a child, "If you're going to be raising _my children_ keep your mouth clean."

Next to him Naruto was cracking up. Sasuke sighed in resignation and rubbed his cheek (for someone with no control over her chakra and no training in taijutsu she hit _hard_) and apologized while beside him the maniac _howled_ with laughter.

And oddly, it was that little exchange that seemed to calm her down. Maybe it was the assertion of authority over the two shinobi in front of her.

At the sound of Naruto's laughter the baby woke up crying. Hana picked him up and then thrust him into Sasuke's arms before taking some milk out of the fridge. He stiffened the moment the child touched his arms, the last time he's held an infant was when he was a child, before his parents died. He felt a moment of blind panic before hearing Naruto's hissed _idiot, support the head_ and feeling his body sort of gently curve around the child. The baby was crying, so he gave it one of his fingers to suck on, and forced himself to look at the boy's face. Once again Itachi had left his stamp, visible even under the baby fat.

A moment later Hana took the boy from him and stuck the bottle in. "Goats milk," she said, "He doesn't like formula and I'm not exactly a heifer."

Sasuke thought it the best part of valor not to respond to that and kicked Naruto under the table.

"How old is he?" he asked instead.

"He'll be six months in two weeks." Sasuke sat back and did the math, the boy had been conceived a month and some weeks before he killed his father. He looked at the woman and thought _why don't you hate me?_

Just then the two older children returned smelling of marine paint and seasoned wood. The older boy glared at him, and Hana, who had apparently developed that eyes-behind-the-head vision all mothers had that rivaled the Hyuugas, yelled, "Fugaku-chan, that's your uncle Sasuke-san, be _polite_ if you can't be nice."

The boy gave him a startled look and the girl squeaked.

A few hours later and he was on the porch, watching while Naruto and several of his clones entertained Fugaku-kun in a game of chase the devil. Mikoto-chan sitting primly beside him on the steps. The girl looked to be about seven or eight, and she was starting to remind him more of Hinata then his brother, and while that worried him slightly--he didn't want to see her bullied the way Hinata had been--it was also a relief. He was starting to see the children not as extensions of his brother, but as individual members of his family. A sudden shout of triumph from Naruto and a shriek of laughter from the boy caught his attention as Naruto finally cornered his prey before tossing him into the air and catching him, and for a moment Sasuke saw Itachi.

Only it wasn't the Itachi who had stood over their parents' bodies, his blade wet with their blood. It wasn't the Itachi who had used his Sharingan against his own little brother to brand hatred into his heart. It wasn't even the Itachi he had fought, who was ready to die and willing to do anything to make Sasuke kill him.

No, this was the Itachi who had walked him to class, who would take his little brother out to the forest to teach him how to throw shuriken, who stood up for him to his father, and who carried him home when he was tired or hurt. The brother that he had seen in the last moments of their battle when he had imparted the ultimate power of the Sharingan to him. The brother who had arraigned to revive the clan he had slaughtered, so that Sasuke could have a family once again.

His niece sighed and he froze when she moved onto his lap before cautiously wrapping his arms around her. Everything was so new, so raw, but this felt so right that he couldn't possibly turn her away. They watched his beloved play with her older brother, while behind them his sister-in-law sang to the baby.

_It's our turn to raise the younger generation_, Naruto had told him once. At the time he hadn't really understood it. From the time his family died he hadn't ever really considered the possibility that he had a future.

Holding the future in his arms, Sasuke smiled.


	2. The Second Path

A/N, this was originally meant to be a oneshot with the first chapter, but I guess I got inspired. Rated M because of a graphic description of a fishing accident. Commercial fishing boats are dangerous, dangerous things.

* * *

There's blood on the deck and blood in the rigging. Fish blood and fish guts mixed together with something all too human. Amelia was screaming. Fugaku wanted to join her.

The woman with the foreign name had lived in their village for as long as he'd been alive. Lived in their village and fished their waters and babysat him and his sister and half the village kids and now, today, she was going to _die_, torn apart by the rigging.

At least he _hoped_ she would die. Anything else was too cruel.

She was in the cabin now with most of the crew while he huddled out here with a man he only knew as Oni. That's what the other kids called him, anyways. Privately Fugaku thought he wasn't a demon, sure he looked horrible with his nose sliced off and missing ears and those horrible _scars_ but he didn't act like one. They were supposed to be watching the ship but Fugaku was only eight and on his first big fishing trip and therefore didn't know anything about these kinds of ships, and Oni was curled up by the cabin staring at the bloody deck and shivering.

"Notagainnotagainnotagain," the man was saying over and over again. "Stupid stupid, not enough morphine, stupid."

Fugaku edged closer. Amelia sounded hoarse now, but she was still screaming. "What are they going to do?" She couldn't keep screaming like that, could she? "Sir? Do you know?" He shook the man's shoulder and was slammed backwards, a knife at his throat.

Oni stared at him for a moment. He blinked rapidly and just as suddenly released him and made the knife disappear. "Sorry kid. Don't--don't touch me right now..."

Fugaku nodded and scooted away. The knife didn't scare him, Father had been teaching him how to wield them every visit for the last two years.

"What are they going to do?" he asked again.

The man passed a hand over his eyes. "I saw what she looked like. Uh, legs are pretty much _gone_, torso's crushed, she's going to bleed to death soon. But not soon enough, they did her no favors with the tourniquets. They'll--they'll probably come out and ask me for help. Fuck, I wish there was some booze aboard." Oni sighed, it sounded like a sob. "You know kid? There's two types of missing-nin. There's--there's your dad, and don't bother trying to deny it. No hidden village would let a guy like that have a family outside of their control, not with whatever blood limit he's got. A guy like that, he's dangerous."

"And then there's me." He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "I can't! I can't I can't I can't. What kind of nin is scared of killing people?"

Fugaku watched him. Distantly he heard the mast and rigging creak. "I can do it, if you don't want to."

An agonized scream ripped the air.

The man stared at him. "Kid. You're _eight._"

Fugaku just looked at him. It was very simple, he liked Amelia--she was the one who had convinced his mother to let him come out here in the first place. And now she was in a lot pain and they couldn't fix her--pain she didn't deserve. It was all very simple, only adults made it hard.

"I can do it," he repeated. "Just show me where."

The man shivered and looked away. "You really are your father's son, you know that?" He paused for a moment, and sighed. "Okay. I'll show you. Just--just don't say I didn't tell you."

A moment later the captain came out and gave Oni a _look_, and Oni nodded unhappily. As the rest of the crew filed out Fugaku ducked in. No one noticed him.

For a moment he hated them.

Oni shut the door and latched it, then drew the knife and handed it him. It was a hunting knife, heavy bladed to cut through deer hide or into a haddock's brain, not one of the kunai his father had shown him. Amelia was moaning now and gasping. Her breathing sounded…weird. They'd covered her lower body with a blanket but that didn't hide the pool of blood or the dark bruising covering her body. She looked…squished. And shredded.

Oni turned around and threw up. "Just do it."

"You have to show me where."

"Oh. Oh fuck." But he came over and ripped her shirt open anyways, and then pointed to a spot on her chest. "You're a skinny kid, but if you go between the ribs I think you can do it."

It was harder then he expected. He wanted to just slam the blade home like what Father would do, but Oni was correct--he wasn't strong enough and he might miss. And if he missed he would cause Amelia more suffering and he might lose his nerve. So instead he put the tip where Oni had showed him and pressed _downward, _feeling the knife scrape against bone. Amelia whimpered like a baby as the blade went in, shuddered, and _deflated_, the air escaping her in an odd gasp.

Oni stared at him for a moment, then threw up again. "God help me," he said, "I made you into a killer."

Fugaku looked at Amelia's corpse and felt nothing.

* * *

A month later and he still felt nothing, although he wondered if he should.

One thing he had noticed was the scent of death that seemed to follow him. It wasn't a real scent as far as he could tell, but it registered that way anyways. It centered on his hands, and no matter how much he washed them it did not leave. His mother had raised an eyebrow at him when she noticed him washing his hands once too often, but said nothing. Eventually he stopped trying, figuring it was all in his head.

But once he had the scent, he could smell it elsewhere.

Oni was covered in it to the point that he could not be around the man without wanting to gag. Oni was missing-nin, but in a fishing village that made half its income with smuggled goods no one cared, and no one asked questions. Other's had it too, here, a grizzled old man who had been rumored to have killed his wife fifty years ago, there a young woman who, like Amelia, had wandered into town from somewhere else and chosen to stay.

And then his father came to visit, and he wondered why the scent clinging to Oni had troubled him so. His father was _saturated_ with the scent of death, it clung to him like a cloud, followed his movements, and left a trail that Fugaku could follow if he wanted to. It was amazing that no one else could smell it, that aura. It was amazing he hadn't smelled it until now. His sister threw herself into her father's arms with a happy shout as if there was nothing wrong and it was all he could do to not grab her and pull her away to safety. This was ridiculous, he was afraid of his _father._ His father smiled that cold, careful smile of his and lifted her into the air.

Mother walked into the room smiling, and greeted Father with a kiss. "Itachi," she said. "How long can you stay?"

"Not long." He looked at Fugaku, his cold black eyes blank of all emotion and set Mikoto down. "I must speak to Fugaku-kun."

"Of course."

Outside they walked in silence to the sea-grass covered sand dunes that stood between the village and the ocean. Fugaku maintained a careful distance between him and his father, just out of arm reach, but close enough that he hoped it wasn't obvious he was keeping his distance. It was useless, of course, Father was a shinobi.

"What happened?" Itachi asked, when they were well out of range of any eavesdroppers.

Fugaku stared at the ground and said nothing.

"Son?" His father reached out with one of those hands that _stank_ of death to ruffle his hair, and Fugaku could not help flinching away. "Fugaku, who did you kill?"

Fugaku looked up into his father's eyes. They were blank as always, watching him with idle curiosity, and oddly this reassured him. He took a breath and told him about Amelia. As he spoke he saw his father's black eyes become flooded with red for a moment, before he looked away. When he was done Father motioned for them both to sit.

They sat in silence for several minutes watching the waves, the sea breeze blowing away the scent of death.

"The hardest deaths," his father said finally, "are those of your comrades, and those close to you."

"Who did you kill?" Fugaku asked in a small voice. For a moment he thought his father wasn't going to answer.

"Enemies. Traitors. Those were easy." In the far distance a whale spouted. "Badly injured comrades we could not evacuate or save, as you did. Those were the hardest." Fugaku's heart pounded loudly in his ears. "My best friend. My father and mother, and the rest of my family, save my brother," his voice was almost too soft to hear over the sound of the waves, "Those were not hard at all, once I started."

Fugaku froze, every joint locking up. He couldn't breathe, and the death-scent which had been almost completely washed away by the breeze was now back, redoubled. He wanted to puke, he wanted to cry, he wanted to run away screaming, but his body did not let him do any of these things.

"Why?" he whispered.

When his father spoke again, it was not to answer his question. "There are two paths to become strong. The first is to forge yourself into something that is no longer human. You must put aside all bonds, all loves, and become blind to anything that does not further your goals. This is the path that I have chosen for me and my brother. One day soon he will kill me, before the end of the year, hopefully."

Fugaku shivered.

"That path only leads to destruction, unless one can pull back from it. I cannot. My brother…" his voice trailed off for a moment. "The second path is the opposite, it involves forging bonds with others, and making yourself stronger to protect them, their ideals, and the innocent. It ties one down, but it also…healthier. It would not have accomplished my goals. It would not have given my brother the ultimate power of the Sharingan."

"It _is_ the path I want you to take."

"Father, why did you…?" _Why did you have us?_ he wanted to ask, but the words froze in his throat.

This time when his father reached out to ruffle his hair Fugaku let him. His father's fingers were hesitant, almost fearful despite all the death they had inflicted, and Fugaku realized that he had his answer.

Itachi had not completely abandoned the second path.


End file.
